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Hornets

March 05, 2009

Just watching the Mavericks' loss to the Hornets from home, and I keep thinking about last night's game against the Spurs. The Mavericks had so much working well in that game, and obviously Josh Howard's ankle cooperated with him a little more (no question his absence in the second half tonight changes everything).

Usually, you chalk up a victory over the Spurs as something big. But considering tonight's defeat, does it erase much of the good of Wednesday night?

April 27, 2008

Tyson Chandler picked up his second foul early, just like last game. That affected the Hornets game plan greatly in Game 3 as it removed a big athletic size advantage for long stretches. The Mavs have to attack the lane while he's in and when he inevitably sits for a stretch.

Morris Peterson just picked up his third foul, but he isn't the only one in trouble. Tyson Chandler, David West and Bonzi Wells have two and Hilton Armstrong has three. By contrast, the Mavs have only two players with two fouls in Dirk and Damp. The Hornets just went over the limit on team fouls at just over three minutes gone in the quarter. This should be a big storyline for the second half.

Who were the Mavs worried about coming into this game? Chris Paul? David West? Peja Stojakovic?

Maybe it should have been Jannero Pargo. The eighth-year player is lighting the Mavs up so far and has 10 points on 4-4 shooting, two of which were from three-point range. He also has two assists and a steal and is being rather disruptive on the defensive end as well. Add his list to the already long list of guys the Mavs need to keep track of.

The Mavs are looking similar to their first half in Game 1. They're pushing the pace and rotating properly. Chris Paul has two points and three assists, but is 0-3 from the floor as the Mavs are denying him penetration. His bread-and-butter involves getting inside, so as long as the Mavs can keep a body on him on the perimeter and being physical and collapsing properly on him when he does get in the lane, they should continue to do well against him.

They just have to be mindful that when they collapse on him, they have to keep an eye on the perimeter players like Peja and Mo Pete. One other note on why the Mavs have played well: Tyson Chandler had two early fouls and is out right now because of it. Keep an eye on how things go when he returns.

This is some clown-ball business. The Mavs don't look like they've made any half-time adjustments and are essentially gifting the Hornets whatever they want. When they pay attention to Paul and the big guys, New Orleans is burning them from the outside. It's 80-58 and it's starting to look like the Mavs are already folding it up.

It's very troubling to see the Mavs listlessly make run after run at Chris Paul and throw poor "double teams" at him. They continue to try and pay him extra defensive attention, but they're going about it the wrong way. Their game plan against Paul seems to be done halfway and it obviously isn't working. If they want to have a snowball's chance in this game, they are going to have to understand that Paul's deadliness lies in his teammates. With Tyson Chandler and David West running around virtually unguarded when the Mavs double team Paul, they're just asking to have a nasty dunk following Paul's inevitable split of the double team.

Either way, the Mavs look poorly equipped to deal with the Hornets and are being outgamed in most every aspect. Their gameplan needs some adjustment, or they need to come up with one in the first place.

The Mavs keep double-teaming Chris Paul, and they finally figured out that they need to do it with the two athletic guys who can move laterally. Earlier in the quarter, they were were doubling him with Damp and Kidd, or Dirk and Kidd, to which Paul split with ease and set up easy buckets.

Then, Josh and Bass went out to glove him up and forced Paul into a difficult pass. The Hornets ended up with a jumper anyway, but the point is that they weren't getting dunks and layups, which was the result of doubling him with two slow guys.

If the Mavs are going to double Paul, they also have to keep a solid eye and man up on Tyson Chandler on the weak side or they're going to get burnt every time.